And this is only part of it.
JFK's PUBLIC RECORD
JFK graduated 64th in his high school class of 112.
As a student his mind was undisciplined and according to his college tutorial record "will probably never be very original."
The book Why England Slept attributed to JFK was written by Blair Clark and Arthur Krock. Harold Laski said of it "it is very immature, it has no structure, and dwells almost entirely on the surface of things."
As a WWII commander of a patrol boat PT-109 off Western Australia, he managed through simply unbelievable incompetence to get it run over by a Japanese destroyer. He then fabricated a story. His men called him “Shafty” and complained he spent more time chasing women than Japanese.
1946 House of Representatives race, his father spent $300,000 on his campaign in violation of law. JFK reported to the Massachusetts Secretary of State that there were no campaign contributions or expenditures.
1952 Senate seat was won by skullduggery (Reeves p 106).
Johnson on JFK, "He never said a word of importance in the Senate and never did a thing." JFK promised Senator Stuart Symington that he was the 1960 VP choice, but then had a mysterious meeting with LBJ and Sam Rayburn at which Johnson blackmailed him with dirt given him by FBI Director Hoover.
Profiles in Courage was written by Sorenson and Davids. JFK "served principally as an overseer or, more charitably, as a sponsor and editor, one whose final approval was as important for its publication as its birth." (Reeves p 127) JFK claimed unequivocally to be its author and its authorship was always a sore point with him. Joe Kennedy bought up copies to make it a best seller.
Although this book was not nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, Joe Kennedy bought the prize for the book. (Reeves p 142)
1956 after the stillbirth of his child, JFK was with a boatload of females in the Mediterranean and said "Why should I go back? What good would it do?"
1960 JFK stole the election which he had officially won by a mere 119,450 votes. Illinois State's Attorney Benjamin S. Adamowski charged on December 1 that the Chicago Democratic machine had stolen at least 100,000 votes. More than 10 percent of Chicagoans were left off polling lists, absentee ballots were not counted and there were many apparent erasures on the paper ballots. In Texas tens of thousands of ballots disappeared and The New York Herald Tribune reported that 100,000 votes tallied for Kennedy-Johnson never existed in the first place. They won Texas by 46,000 votes.
One of the reasons the mafia was so upset with Kennedy is that they had spent a lot of money and influence, especially in Chicago, to get him elected and then he and Bobby Kennedy turned on them. Particularly Jimmy Hoffa and the Chicago and Louisiana families were upset. Giancana told Judith Campbell Exner, "Listen, honey, if it wasn't for me, your boyfriend wouldn't even be in the White House." JFK had sent 250,000 dollars with Exner to Giancana for the mob to get out the union vote and make corrupt unions contribute to JFK's campaign.
It is likely that General Dynamics blackmailed JFK to give them the TFX fighter contract (Boeing had the better plane), 6.5 billion dollars, the largest in history to that point, after bugging Exner's apartment.
JFK's first priority as President was the assassination of Prime Minister Lumumba of the Congo and Trujillo of the Dominican Republic.
JFK was reluctant on Civil Rights, the major issue of the day. (Reeves p 416) JFK made campaign promises to blacks that he did not keep which led to riots. Akhil Reed Amar of Yale Law School faults JFK for appeasing Southern Democrats by stocking the lower federal bench with "notorious segregationists." RFK ordered extensive electronic surveillance of Martin Luther King admittedly "investigating the love life of a group leader for dissemination in the press."
In the 1960 election, JFK concealed his Addison's disease and even stated flatly to the press "I have never had Addison's disease." That was a lie, of course. LBJ said Kennedy looked like "a spavined hunchback." The records show that Kennedy took codeine, Demerol and methadone for pain; Ritalin, a stimulant; meprobamate and librium for anxiety; barbiturates for sleep; thyroid hormone; and injections of a blood derivative, gamma globulin, to combat infections. During the missile crisis, Kennedy was taking antispasmodics to control colitis; antibiotics for a urinary tract infection; and increased amounts of hydrocortisone and testosterone to control his adrenal insufficiency. For much of his life, Kennedy also suffered from severe and potentially dangerous bouts of diarrhea. Kennedy took anti-diarrheal drugs like Lomotil for relief.
He also had high blood cholesterol, often in the range of 300, once at 410, which is twice the level now considered desirable. He had a tremendous proclivity for infections. Kennedy received "seven to eight injections of procaine in his back in the same sitting" before news conferences and other events, according to Dr. Kelman. Kennedy had developed osteoporosis by the 1930s and probably in his childhood. X-rays show spinal fractures and metal screws in the vertebrae unrelated to PT-109 injuries.
Berlin Wall - JFK pursued a risky confrontation (Reeves P 417). Later Kennedy at Berlin said "Ich bin ein Berliner." That literally means: "I am a jelly roll." If he meant to say he was a resident of Berlin (a lie), he should have left off the word 'ein'. (cf. a hamburger or a frankfurter refer also to food)
1961, May 25th, JFK, without consulting anyone, announced a race to the moon. Later he suggested to the UN not a race but a co-operative effort with the Soviets. His cost estimates were way off and critics pointed out that this was a misallocation of resources - that the government could not continue to spend huge sums on projects of marginal or doubtful value. The New York Times editorialized in March 1967 "We fail to see that it makes any great difference who reaches the moon first or whether the landing takes place in the 1960's or mid-1970's...The moon is not going away."
JFK used the FBI to his personal advantage and to silence press critics.
ENEMIES LIST! Nixon was impeached primarily for misusing the IRS. In early 1961 JFK planted family friend Carmine Bellino in the IRS with the title "special consultant to the president "and demanded that he have access to tax returns. They turned the IRS into a lending library. Quoting from the Wall Street Journal of January 28, 1997: "the Kennedys were far worse than Nixon in their manipulation of the IRS...The documents show that the Kennedys targeted non-exempt activist groups. And the auditing was done at the behest of politicians, not the professionals at the IRS...On December 20, 1961, Rogovin forwarded to Dean J. Barron, the IRS audit director at the time, a list of 18 organizations to investigate."
Scores were targeted later including: Daughters of the American Revolution, the Americans Veterans Committee, the Conservative Society of America, Americans for Constitutional Government, All-American Society, the Conservatives, the Christian Crusade, Life-Line Foundation, Christian Echoes Ministry, the National Education Program of Harding College, the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith, the Freeman Charitable Foundation, and the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade. Many of these groups had their tax-exempt status revoked.
The Kennedys also targeted corporate taxpayers and at one point had a plan to target up to 10,000 groups.
The Peace Corps was paid voluntarism for unskilled do-gooders.
Bay of Pigs, Cuba, April 15, 1961 - JFK interfered with the military operation both in planning and execution to make it worse; did not keep commitments he had made, especially for airstrikes; made public statements that the US would not support insurrection in Cuba which discouraged resistance to Castro, blamed others for its failure and lied to the public about it. JFK weakened the original plan to make it virtually certain to fail (both of the original CIA planners Esterline and Hawkins threatened to resign over the changes). JFK was directly told by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Lemnitzer that the invasion "would have very little chance of success." The Joint Chiefs in a memorandum of January 27, 1961 wrote "The current Political-Para-Military Plan does not assure the accomplishment of the above objective nor has there been detailed follow-up planning to exploit that plan if it succeeds or for any direct action that might be required if the plan is found to be inadequate." JFK went ahead with the plan, according to Arthur Schlesinger, to impress Eisenhower and Kruschev.
RFK led the cover-up to protect the president with a shield of lies that he had received bad advice and really didn't know much about it. Esterline says now "What I find so unacceptable is how cavalier they (the Kennedys) were in taking nearly 2,000 people and putting them out as animal bait." Four Americans and 114 CIA-trained Cubans were killed and 1,189 were captured.
Cuban Missile Crisis - JFK brought the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust by pursuing a game of nuclear chicken that defines him as the riskiest president in history. Dean Acheson said JFK was "phenomenally lucky." We were too. JFK forced the public confrontation for political reasons and humiliated Kruschev, the man he had to deal with. JFK backed down on inspection for compliance and lied to the public about the resolution of the crisis, denying that we had agreed to withdraw vital U.S. installations from Turkey in exchange for the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba - a deal which was political poison.
On October 22, 1963, JFK wrote his staff in a hand-written note "Is there a plan to brief and brainwash key press within 12 hours or so?" By being dishonest with the American people, JFK gave the Soviets, who had the facts, the power to destroy his Presidency and thereby unduly influence him. Also the timing was dishonest, he had known about the missiles since August 22 when informed by CIA Director McCone. He announced it on October 22nd to influence Congressional elections in favor of Democrats - the classic "October surprise." There is evidence that the Russians never removed their missiles, but at best the end result - status quo ante minus US missiles in Turkey - was clearly worse for the US. JFK's handling of the crisis to the point of our nuclear annihilation was the most irresponsible act of any president in history. His body was on speed and his mind was on sex at the height of the crises – he asked McNamara about an attractive Pentagon secretary, “I want her name and number. We may avert war tonight.”
New terrorism - JFK ordered the CIA (100 million dollar Operation Mongoose) to sabotage the Cuban economy and assassinate Fidel Castro, showing an irresponsibility and lack of judgment bordering on dereliction. The CIA offered a 150,000 dollar open contract on Castro. Samuel Halpern, the CIA executive in charge of Task Force W whose sole purpose was to assassinate Castro, wrote that the Kennedys were obsessed about wanting Castro dead "for personal reasons - because the family name was besmirched by the Bay of Pigs." Even up to his death, JFK was directing an effort to manufacture pretexts to invade Cuba. These efforts may have precipitated the Cuban missile crises.
November 1, 1963 JFK instigated a plot to overthrow and kill South Vietnam's Premiere Diem. JFK played politics with American lives in Vietnam, he put his election ahead of American lives. He feared that Diem, who was negotiating with the North, would force Americans out before the 1964 elections. Voice of America broadcasts called for the coup, JFK had cut off pay to the Palace Guard and American advisors were attached to almost every unit that attacked the Presidential Palace. The Viet Cong made huge advances in the resulting confusion. JFK had asked Air Force General Edward Landsdale, an ex-CIA man, to go to Saigon and help "get rid" of Diem (he refused). Lt. Col. Lucien Conein was used instead. The fundamental planning document was the August 30, 1963, memo to Secretary of State Dean Rusk from Roger Hilsman, Assistant Sec. State for Far Eastern Affairs. It said among other things, "We should encourage the coup group to destroy the palace if necessary to gain victory..." and in point 10 it ordered the death of Diem. In 1961 when JFK took office there were 685 US military advisors in Vietnam and in 1963 there were 16,732 (including combat troops) in violation of the 1954 Geneva Conventions and aid had gone up to $400 million per year. Kennedy said "now we have a problem in trying to make our power credible, and Vietnam looks like the place."
In the Summer of 1963, the US had 200 Atlas, Titan and Minuteman missiles, over 100 Polaris missiles and about 1700 nuclear bombers. Russia had about 50 ICBM's and 200 long-range bombers. Our megatonnage was 10 to 1. JFK decided to give away our advantage, hold back our nuclear forces and allow the Russians to catch up on the theory that this would create an equal balance of terror and work for world peace. Kennedy's idea, which turned out to be false, was that if the Soviets caught up that they would then stop their military buildup. This was probably the single most dangerous mistake Kennedy made.
Kennedy, like Clinton after him, slipped away from his security detail for trysts leaving the army officer with the nuclear football behind. If there had been a surprise nuclear attack against the US, we would have been defenseless. |
